When the trees have shed their leaves and stand proud in all their naked glory.
When the winter sun gives forth the last of its colour to the sky.
When trees are silhouetted against a backdrop of graduated shades of sunset.
And when cool, still water honours the beauty with perfect reflection.

The ultimate form of musical expression, inspiring the ultimate form of dance expression? Some would say so…

I might be one of them. But so it is in music it shall be in dance… Variety, variety, variety… Despite the musical inspiration, for me, physical impulse, aspiration, muse, motivation and stimulation is also required.

Let me offer you this piece by a favourite artist of mine and share with you why it calls to me (aside from the obvious – purple!)

There is a feeling of being completely lost in the moment about these musicians that breathes such life into it, so that it makes complete and utter sense as a visual whole. Yet when I try to look beyond the whole and into the individual aspects, suddenly it all begins to feel quite bizarre…
The guys are naked, the poise, shape, angles and positioning of the bodies feels all wrong and where I’ve assumed these are two men, when I look at the one sitting down, I can’t tell if it is male or female after all.

The colours soothe and entice me, the facial expressions delight me, the beautiful way the head of the guy in the foreground and the head of the guy in the background curve around each other, such that perspective plays tricks on me.

I am fascinated at the complexity of the emotions that I read into the faces of what are, essentially, cartoon characters. Is the piano player lost in a beautiful moment, or drowning in melancholy? Is the horn player oblivious to the possible suffering or playing it? So many interpretations.

Toni Thorne captures time, spirit, movement and emotion in a very unique way, and her tributes to Michael Jackson as well as her clear love of music and the musicians that create it are a joy.